When Jordan Henderson and Dele Alli look at Luka Modric, they should be thinking to themselves: “That’s the ­player I want to be.”

Because I can’t think of a ­midfielder who has had a better 12 months than the diminutive Croatian playmaker.

He dictated the Champions League final for Real Madrid against Liverpool in Kiev a few weeks ago.

And even though he didn’t have a great first half against England, it was his cajoling, his pushing from the interval ­onwards, that took his nation into their first World Cup final.

He’s practically peerless in terms of his ability to run, tackle and pass.

When people say it was men against boys during the semi-­final, he was the ­ultimate man.

Luka Modric has been a stand out performer in this World Cup (Image: Michael Regan - FIFA)

I don’t usually get too ­impressed with players because my benchmark is Zico at the 1982 World Cup in Spain and Diego Maradona four years later in Mexico.

So in terms of what represents ­exceptional quality, my bar is very, very high. But goodness me, from half-time onwards Modric wasn’t far from that level.

I never expected him to be this influential when he left ­Tottenham for Real Madrid – but he has been incredible and is now genuine world class.

He was like a conductor on Wednesday, commanding his team to stay in England’s half, to push them back and to keep pressing. That led to the ­equaliser and ultimately the winner.

It was a sublime performance from Modric and compatriots.

Not least from goalkeeper Danijel Subasic, who has also been one of the stars of this World Cup. A lot of us expected Manuel Neuer and David De Gea to give us the goalkeeping masterclasses.

(Image: Getty Images Europe)

But it was Subasic and others in the last four – Hugo Lloris, Jordan Pickford and Thibaut Courtois – who did that. Despite their impressive displays, though, it’s very hard to look beyond Modric for the best player of the tournament.

And that will remain the case whether Croatia win or lose in the final against France today.

I have to say this French side have impressed me and that’s why my money is on Les Bleus to win 2-1 in Moscow.

Didier Deschamps’ team does not have the swagger that the likes of Zinedine Zidane gave previous French teams, but it still gets results.

What’s more, Croatia have had to play 120 ­minutes in each of their last three games, and I fear that will be too much of a ­handicap once we go deep into the second half.

Still, it will be a fitting finale for a ­tournament which has seen the regular world order turned upside down.

A number of ­experts were ­convinced this would be the year five ­nations broke away from and hammered every other country.

Yet the opposite has happened – you only have to look at the semi-finalists to ­realise that.

Danijel Subasic has been one of the goalkeepers of the tournament (Image: REUTERS)

Then when you look at the teams who didn’t even make it to Russia (such as Italy, Holland, the USA) and the teams who made it and played ­excellent football but didn’t go very far (such as Peru, Mexico and Morocco), you can see something is changing.

I can’t quite pin down what it is yet, but maybe it’s the fact that so many players play most of their football in Europe, Japan, the United States and Australia these days.

In all of those nations, sports science, fitness and health have got to such levels that players from all over the world are equally fit.

There were times in previous World Cups when players from some countries would know their opponents would tire in the last 30 minutes of games, but in Russia that simply has not been the case.

Look at the level Croatia were at against England in extra-time despite it being their third added period in three games.

It has been an incredible ­tournament and while Spain ’82 will always be my favourite, this is the best I have been to.